Drug Kingpin Faces £100,000 Bill From Prison After Vast Network Exposed

A drug gang member must pay back £100,000. He made over half a million pounds from crime. Police seized cocaine worth £1.2 million. The gang distributed much larger amounts of drugs.

Nicholas Gale, 34, led the operation. Spencer Perks, Jamie Christopher, and Jake Garland helped. They trafficked drugs from the West Midlands to Wales. They supplied cocaine and heroin in large amounts.

Gale lived on Cowbridge Road West, Cardiff. He headed the criminal group. Gale used encrypted messages to manage drug supply.

He used a Nokia phone with two SIM cards. He often contacted other gang members. Spencer Perks, 44, lived in Mountain Ash. He was Gale’s close assistant. Perks used encrypted messaging, calling himself ‘Zeus’.

Jamie Christopher, 24, from Cardiff, was a trusted courier. Christopher also used Gale’s mobile phone. Jake Garland, 30, from Newport, was a wholesale customer. He had his own drug network.

Police seized Christopher’s phone in 2022. It showed the vast drug network. One message referenced getting “the magic tomorrow”. Police found 12 kg packages of cocaine in a holdall.

Gale, Perks, and Christopher admitted conspiring to supply drugs. Perks admitted producing a Class B drug. Christopher admitted possessing a Class B drug. Garland admitted possessing a Class A drug, intending to supply.

The gang received almost 50 years in prison total. Gale got 13 years and six months. Perks got 10 years and eight months. Christopher got nine years. Garland got 15 years.

Gale made £582,245 from his crimes. He only had assets worth £100,065. A court ordered him to pay £100,065. He has three months to pay. If he fails, he faces another year in jail.